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THE BENEFITS OF GOING TO THE HOUSE OF PRAYER

THE BENEFITS OF GOING TO THE HOUSE OF PRAYER And Other Devotional Addresses to Encourage and Motivate You to Pray to the God of the Bible

THE PRAYING THROUGH THE BIBLE SERIES Volume 7

DANIEL WHYTE III

The Benefits of Going to the House of Prayer: And Other Devotional Addresses to Encourage and Motivate You to Pray to the God of the Bible (The Praying Through the Bible Series: Volume 7)

by Daniel Whyte III Cover Design by Atinad Designs. Š Copyright 2015 TORCH LEGACY PUBLICATIONS First Printing, 2015 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owner, except for brief quotations included in a review of the book. ________________________________________________________________________ All Bible quotations in this volume are from the King James Version of the Bible.

The name TORCH LEGACY PUBLICATIONS and its logo are registered as a trademark in the U.S. patent office.

Printed in the U.S.A.

Acknowledgements For the Glory of God, and to my Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ who taught us how to pray; And to the memory of E.M. Bounds who God used to motivate me to pray.

To my favorite prayer partners: my wife, Meriqua, and my children: Danni, Daniel IV, Danita, Danae, Daniqua, Danyel Ezekiel, and Danyelle Elizabeth; And especially to my oldest son, Daniel Whyte IV, whom I have had the privilege of training in the ministry ever since he was a little boy when he said he wanted to be a preacher. He assisted me by doing most of the research for the messages included in this book.

And to all people around the world who want to be encouraged to pray more effectively and see God answer their prayers and bless their lives for His glory. —Daniel Whyte III

Contents Introduction 1. 3 Things to Do in Perilous Times 2. Is Your Prayer Pleasing to God? 3. The Privilege of Prayer 4. 3 Ways to Improve Your Prayer Life 5. The Tragedy of Fruitless and Futile Praying 6. The Positivity of Pain (Part 1) 7. The Positivity of Pain (Part 2) 8. The Biblical Response to Bad News 9. The Benefits of Going to the House of Prayer 10. When God Says, ‘Don’t Pray’ (Part 1) 11. When God Says ‘Don’t Pray’ (Part 2) 12. Supplication — the Proper Response to God’s Chastisement

Introduction “And he spake a parable unto them to this end, that men ought always to pray, and not to faint.”

—Luke 18:1 “All who call on God in true faith, earnestly from the heart, will certainly be heard, and will receive what they have asked and desired.”

—Martin Luther I am convinced that most people do not need to learn how to pray; they need to Just Pray! Prayer is like any other important discipline in the Christian life. If you don’t do it, you won’t reap the benefits and blessings that God wants you to have. If you want to reap the benefits and blessings of prayer, then you need to simply Just Pray! This is what The Praying Through the Bible Series of devotional messages is all about: exploring each of the over 500 verses and passages in Scripture concerning prayer, from Genesis to Revelation, so that you can be encouraged and motivated to pray to the God of the Bible.

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The Praying Through the Bible Series began after the Lord led me to put together a little devotional book titled, The Prayer Motivator, which was followed later by the Prayer Motivator Devotional Bible. The Lord leading me to do The Prayer Motivator Devotional Bible was a complete surprise because I had never dreamed of doing a themed Bible in my life. In this Bible, we highlighted each of the over 500 verses and passages on prayer in the Bible.

Following the publication of that project, the Lord led me to begin preaching a series of messages on each of those passages on prayer. To my knowledge, preaching solely on every passage concerning prayer in the Bible had not been done before. By the grace of God, this series of messages— each of which was preached on a Wednesday night to a live audience—has been a blessing to thousands as I have shared brief, devotional principles from God’s Word concerning the matter of prayer. (In most cases, the preached version of each of these messages is quite different from what is given in this series of books — and probably better. If you want to listen to any of the messages in this series, you can do so online at www.prayingthroughthebible.com.)

This is a series that every Christian can read and benefit from. This series will inspire, encourage, and motivate you to pray daily and throughout the day so that you can receive the benefits and blessings of a prayerful life. Prayer to God has been the center and highlight of my life ever since God used a series of books by E.M. Bounds to open my eyes to the importance and power of prayer. In spite of myself, God has been very good to me and to my family in many ways, but the

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thing that stands out the most to me are the thousands of answers to prayer over the past thirty years of full-time ministry and twenty-seven years of marriage with a family of nine. I want you to experience the same benefits and blessings of a prayerful life.

If you are a pastor, please feel free to use these short, devotional messages in your mid-week prayer services. You do not need to contact us to ask for permission; that is what these messages are for. We know of pastors who have taken these messages and adapted them for their congregation, so please feel free to add to and take away from them as God leads you for the needs of your people, and I am sure that you will do a better job than I have done.

These messages are not deep, theological expositions; other men of God who are scholars of the Word have already done that. These are simple, devotional messages that are designed to actually get people to just pray to the God of the Bible in faith believing in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.

The Lord led me to put them together with the assistance of my son who is an undergraduate student and still in training.

Most pastors can take the little effort that we have put forth here and make these messages far better.

Additionally, if you are a pastor, I want to encourage you to consider the following things: 1. If you have a weekly prayer meeting at your church, actually make it about prayer—pray and preach a short message on prayer to encourage the people to pray for

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you, for the church, for themselves, and for souls to be saved. This series can provide the basis for those short messages.

2. If you do not have a mid-week prayer meeting at your church, I encourage you to start one. In my humble opinion, it is a shame that most churches do not take the mid-week prayer meeting seriously anymore. Some churches have abandoned the prayer meeting altogether.

Christianity Today told the story of East Indian evangelist K. P. Yohannan who visited America and attended a well-known megachurch one Sunday morning. Over 3,000 people were at the church services that morning, where it was announced that the mid-week prayer meeting would be held in a chapel on the church campus. Yohannan was fired up by what he had experienced, and determined to attend the prayer meeting as well. However, when he arrived for the prayer meeting a few days later, he was shocked to find that the chapel—which had a capacity of 500—was entirely empty. He sat down and waited for a few minutes and eventually seven people arrived. They sat down and made small talk. About forty-five minutes later, one of the leaders of the church walked in, prayed, and gave a brief Bible study.

The article goes on to say: "In all his travels here, Yohannan saw the same pattern repeated over and over again in hundreds of midweek prayer meetings. Almost

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anything happens but prayer. There are announcements, singing, homilies, and a few prayers offered, but usually only by the leader—and that's in the churches that actually have prayer meetings in their schedules. Many more make no pretense even to have a church prayer meeting. There seems to be time for everything else— to study, to fellowship, to preach, but not to pray."

It appears that many pastors and churches have forgotten that the church was born at a prayer meeting in an “upper room.” Pastor, make sure that your church makes time to pray.

3. Consider establishing daily prayer meeting times at your church and throughout your congregation around the city. For example, put someone in charge of holding a prayer meeting at five or six in the morning, twelve o' clock noon, and seven in the evening. Encourage your people to come to the church to pray together as much as possible. I know of a church that has a beautiful prayer room where the door faces a side street. The church members have a key so they can go in to pray at any time. You might recall that Jesus Christ said, "My house shall be called a house of prayer."

4. Encourage your church members to pray without ceasing whether they feel like it or not. One way they can do this is by whispering a prayer for themselves, praying for someone else, and quoting a verse from Scripture at the top of every hour. If you pray a short prayer (based on the model prayer of our Lord in

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Scripture), this will only take about one minute every hour.

Down through the years, as I have preached in prayer meetings and revival meetings across the U.S. and around the world, I have had pastors to admit to me privately that they are not as strong in prayer as they would like to be and as they should be. The truth of the matter is, we all have our different gifts and callings, and just because a pastor does not emphasize prayer does not mean that he is not spiritual.

Pastors are the general practitioners of the church. They are multi-gifted individuals and have the ability to manage and oversee many different ministries and outreaches at the same time, whereas an evangelist is focused on two to three things: evangelism, prayer, and revival. His job is to encourage pastors and the saints to do the work of an evangelist and to evangelize, to pray, to confess and repent of sins so that they can be used by God to see souls saved and brought into the Kingdom. The pastor is not more spiritual than the evangelist; the evangelist is not more spiritual than the pastor.

We just have different callings, gifts, and purposes as it pertains to the church. The evangelist needs the pastor and the pastor needs the evangelist. Even though my calling is to be an evangelist, the truth of the matter is, without my pastor and my pastor friends counseling, advising, and fellowshipping with me on a regular basis, there is no way I would be where I am in my ministry. I thank God for my pastor friends. When there is a family crisis, nobody can outdo a great pastor as far as ministering to that situation. On the other hand, when it comes to taking more territory for God's kingdom through evangelism, and the spiritual warfare involved in doing that,

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no one can do it better than a godly evangelist. So, we need one another in the body of Christ, and we need to get back to recognizing that. We are not enemies, we are brothers serving the same Lord and King.

It is my prayer that this series will inspire all of God's people to pray daily and throughout each day so that you can receive the benefits and blessings of a prayerful life. This series was put together to inspire action on your part. It is designed to motivate you to pray based upon the Word of God by faith in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. If I can just encourage you to pray in faith believing, I believe all sorts of wonderful things will begin to happen to you, in you, and for you, your family, and whatever God has called you to do.

The simple purpose of this series is to encourage and motivate you to get off the ball regarding prayer, and take the little faith you may have and Just Pray to the God of the Bible in the name of Jesus Christ! The Praying Through the Bible Series is designed to help you get over spiritual inertia, your sinful flesh, the devil and his demons, doubt and unbelief, your busy life and the world, so that you can hit “pray dirt” and God will do the rest. Just open your mouth and start praying to the God of the Bible. JUST PRAY! and watch God do things beyond your wildest imaginations.

—Daniel Whyte III Dallas, Texas

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1 3 Things to Do in Perilous Times TEXT: Psalm 143 1 Hear my prayer, O Lord, give ear to my supplications: in thy faithfulness answer me, and in thy righteousness.

2 And enter not into judgment with thy servant: for in thy sight shall no man living be justified.

3 For the enemy hath persecuted my soul; he hath smitten my life down to the ground; he hath made me to dwell in darkness, as those that have been long dead.

4 Therefore is my spirit overwhelmed within me; my heart within me is desolate.

5 I remember the days of old; I meditate on all thy works; I muse on the work of thy hands.

6 I stretch forth my hands unto thee: my soul thirsteth after thee, as a thirsty land. Selah.

7 Hear me speedily, O Lord: my spirit faileth: hide not thy face from me, lest I be like unto them that go down into the pit.

8 Cause me to hear thy lovingkindness in the morning; for in thee do I trust: cause me to know the way wherein I should walk; for I lift up my soul unto thee.

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9 Deliver me, O Lord, from mine enemies: I flee unto thee to hide me.

10 Teach me to do thy will; for thou art my God: thy spirit is good; lead me into the land of uprightness.

11 Quicken me, O Lord, for thy name’s sake: for thy righteousness’ sake bring my soul out of trouble.

12 And of thy mercy cut off mine enemies, and destroy all them that afflict my soul: for I am thy servant.

I think most of us would agree that we live in perilous times.

Within one week, according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, an estimated over 100 people died in car crashes in the United States each day. According to the FBI and the National Crime Information Center, approximately 480 children were kidnapped or went missing. According to the U.S. Department of Justice, over 4,500 people were sexually assaulted over the past seven days. And according to the FBI, over 56,000 households suffered a home invasion. Indeed, friends, we live in perilous times. If you made it an entire week without any of the above happening to you, you ought to be grateful to God. But, as you go about your daily business over the next seven days, be aware that you are living in perilous times.

However, as followers of Christ, we are given the command to “be of good cheer” — to be positive — even in perilous times, and that is what we want to consider right now.

Let’s look at three ways in which David stayed positive in perilous times.

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In perilous times, David was quick to flee to God. In verse 9, David prays, “Deliver me, O Lord, from mine enemies: I flee unto thee to hide me.” My friend, you really don’t know how fast you can run until you are running away from something in order to save your life. It is one thing to run as fast as you can on a track at the park or on a treadmill at the gym. But, it is another thing to run as fast as you can when you are running away from a criminal who means to do you harm.

Physiologists have noted that when you perceive that you are about to be attacked, your body sends a rush of hormones to our nervous system to prepare you to either fight for your survival or flee for your safety. In this passage, we see that David’s response when faced with perilous times is to flee. He flees from the trouble and flees to God. He is quick. He does not waste time. He does not try to negotiate. He does not try to deal with it on his own. He turns and runs to God. Why? Because he knows he can find a hiding place in God. The Hebrew word used in this verse for “hide” means to be covered or concealed. David is quick to run to God because he knows that he can find a protective covering there — he knows that God is His shield who will protect him from the perils of life.

No matter what perils you face in life — be they physical perils brought on by natural disasters, personal perils brought on by temptation, verbal perils brought on by slanderous enemies — understand that the best thing for you to do is not to fight, but to quickly flee to God. And once you are safely sheltered in God, you can remain 21

positive no matter how frightening your perilous situation is.

In perilous times, David seeks God’s leadership.

David prays in verse 10, “Teach me to do thy will; for thou art my God: thy spirit is good; lead me into the land of uprightness.” During perilous times, we often try to take matters into our own hands. We think that God is not moving fast enough , so we try to resolve matters on our own. Unfortunately for us, we normally end up only making matters worse.

During his times of trouble, David seeks God’s guidance and leadership, not necessarily to find out what to do regarding his present situation, but to find out the lessons that God wants him to learn in his present situation. Our goal ought to be the same as well. We need to let God handle the negative situations that we face in life; we just need to focus on learning the lessons that God is trying to teach us from the situation.

Perhaps if we stop trying to get out of our perilous situation, and focus on learning what God is trying to teach us, we can get out of the perilous situation faster. When a child in grade school fails a grade, he is held back and has to take that grade again because he has not learned the lessons he was supposed to learn in that grade. That is how things work with God as well. If we do not learn the lessons we are supposed to learn, our time of trouble, trial, and testing will be longer.

Difficult times are when we need to seek God’s guidance 22

and increase our reliance on Him, not run away from Him. We see in this psalm and in many psalms how David repeatedly turned to God for guidance in perilous times.

We see that David is quick to flee to God in perilous times, and while he is abiding in God, he seeks God’s leadership regarding what he ought to learn from his perilous times.

His focus is on God, not his perils, and he can remain positive because of that.

In perilous times, David asks to be restored.

In verse 11, David prays, “Quicken me, O Lord, for thy name’s sake: for thy righteousness’ sake bring my soul out of trouble.” The word “quicken” means to make alive, to restore, or to revive. David does not want to come out of his perilous situation beaten up and broken down. He wants to come out stronger, better, and ready to take on the next challenge. So he asks God to restore him and revive him. This focus helps David keep a positive perspective.

Being restored or quickened spiritually ought to be the desire of each of us when we go through perilous times.

God does not allow such times in our lives to make us worse, He allows such times to make us better servants for Him. Are you feeling downcast and depressed? Do you feel as if you can’t carry on in life? Then, pray for God to revive you, to restore you, to quicken you so that you can continue fighting the good fight.

While you are being sheltered by God during perilous times, commune constantly with Him through prayer and 23

through His Word. Ask Him for clarity of direction and purpose. Feed on His Word and let it rekindle your passion for the ministry that God has called you to do. Ask God to set you on fire for Him once again.

You can stay positive in your perilous situation if you are focused on the end result. Don’t focus on what is happening to you right now, make it your business to get close to God and to get on fire for Him. You will indeed face perilous situations in this life. If you respond to them like David did, you can keep a positive attitude and outlook no matter how terrible those situations may seem.

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2 Is Your Prayer Pleasing to God? TEXT: Proverbs 15:8-9 8 The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord: but the prayer of the upright is his delight.

9 The way of the wicked is an abomination unto the Lord: but he loveth him that followeth after righteousness.

Proverbs is well-known for its wise and pithy sayings. Many verses in this book have been committed to memory, and some of them have entered popular culture as oftrepeated “proverbs.” This book was written by King Solomon, the man whom many refer to as the “wisest man who ever lived,” and this book is known as one of the “wisdom books” of the Bible. What does the book of wisdom have to say about the important matter of prayer?

We find the first mention of prayer in Proverbs in the 15th chapter. As he does in the entire book, Solomon does not go long on us — he keeps it short — but he does go deep.

The two simple statements found in verses 8 and 9 prompt us to ask three questions about prayer which we all should want answered if we are serious about having our prayers 25

heard and answered by God.

What is God displeased with?

Verse 8 tells us that “the sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination unto the Lord.” Now, when we think of “sacrifice”, we normally think of something good. We honor those who sacrifice for others. We also think of the sacrifice that Jesus Christ made for us on the cross.

However, this verse specifies the “sacrifice of the wicked.”

What is the “sacrifice of the wicked”? A sacrifice is something that is offered up to God. It could be a religious practice such as prayer or preaching. It could also be a physical gift such as money, or as in the ancient Hebrew religion, animals on an altar. This verse tells us that such a sacrifice, no matter how good or pious it may seem, if it comes from a wicked person, it is an abomination in God’s sight.

Now, when we think of a “wicked” person, most of us would think of someone who is not saved, or someone who has committed some gross sin such as murder or who is living in sin such as adultery. But, we must realize that the wickedness referred to here is also wickedness of the heart. Throughout Scripture, God repeatedly warns the children of Israel about coming to Him with a religious sacrifice in their hands but sin and evil in their hearts. As one commentary notes, “The worthlessness of external worship without obedience and devotion of the heart is often spoken of by the prophets.”

You see, you can pray to God with your mouth but not with 26

your heart. Even Jesus Christ spoke of this when he said in Matthew 15:8, “This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips; but their heart is far from me.” In other words, you can say all the right things in church, or even in your private prayer time, but your heart may be set on evil and sin. It is this kind of prayer that is an abomination to God because it comes from a wicked heart.

Your sacrifice — your spiritual service of prayer to God — can be an offense to God if it does not come from a heart that is pure. God is displeased with the prayers of those who engage in wicked deeds, and He is displeased with the prayers of those who have wicked hearts.

What is God pleased with?

In the second part of verse 8, we learn that “the prayer of the upright is his delight.” The prayer of the upright is something that God takes pleasure or enjoyment in. God loves to hear from a person who is upright.

Don’t you want God to enjoy hearing from you when you pray? If so, we must find out what it means to be “upright.”

The Hebrew meaning of the word upright means, “correct, righteous, or just.” In other words, a person who has an upright heart has a heart that is in agreement with God’s laws.

This does not mean that we have to be perfect in order for God to hear our prayers. But it does mean that we ought to be like David and have hearts that are for God and for His laws. If we sin, we ought to confess our sins as we 27

pray and put them under the blood of Jesus. John Calvin, the great theologian, said that “Whenever believers prepare themselves to pray to God, they ought to feel that their prayers are sprinkled by the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, in order to be pure and clean, and to be received

by God as a sweet-smelling sacrifice.”

When we pray, God does not just listen to our words. He looks at our hearts and our intentions. He wants to know if we truly are upright in our spirits and determined to obey Him in our hearts. Such prayers are the kinds of prayers that God is pleased with. He finds delight in the prayer of the upright.

How can my prayers be a delight to God? Let’s look at Proverbs 15:9: “The way of the wicked is an abomination unto the Lord: but he loveth him that followeth after righteousness.” I want us to focus on two key words in this verse: the word “way” and the word “followeth.”

The Hebrew word for way implies a lifestyle or pattern.

Solomon is telling us that there is a path that wicked people are known to walk in. They have a certain type of lifestyle that is an abomination to God. It is their way — the way of the wicked, not the way of God. Those who wish to have their prayers heard and answered

by God will not walk in the way of the wicked. They will not pattern their lives after wicked or evil men. Rather, they will “follow after righteousness.” They will pattern their lives after the path or lifestyle of upright living. This is God’s 28

way, not man’s way. Jesus Christ called it the straight and narrow way.

The Bible tells us that the person who follows after or pursues righteousness is loved by God. When God looks down from Heaven, He is pleased to see people actively following the way of righteousness — running after it, seeking it, pursuing it. We follow the way of righteousness when we rely on God’s Word to tell us how to live and when we have a heart that truly wants to obey God in every aspect of life.

Too often, we try to go our own way, and we wonder why God is not blessing us. A minister was speaking to a group of college students and trying to encourage them to serve God. A young woman stood up and asked him, “Sir, I should like to know how we can be Christians and have our own way?” The minister responded, “My concern for you is that you should want God’s way instead of your way.” That is what it means to follow after righteousness — to want God’s way instead of our own.

We will be blessed when we choose to seek after what God is pleased with in our hearts and in our conduct. God will hear our prayers and will take pleasure in seeing us come to Him each and every day. Today, dear friend, why don’t you choose to have the kind of heart that is pleasing to the Lord so that your prayers can be answered.

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3 The Privilege of Prayer TEXT: Proverbs 15:29 29 The Lord is far from the wicked: but he heareth the prayer of the righteous.

While kayaking in southern England, Mark Ashton-Smith, a 33-year-old lecturer at Cambridge University, capsized in treacherous waters. Clinging to his craft, he reached for his cell phone. Mark’s first inclination was to call his father. It didn’t matter that his father was at work training British troops in Dubai 3,500 miles away. Mark called his father up. Without delay, the father relayed his son’s distress call to the Coast Guard installation nearest to his son’s location. The Coast Guard happened to be less than a mile away. Within twelve minutes of his capsizing, a helicopter rescued Mark Ashton-Smith.

Christians enjoy the privilege of having a similar relationship with our Heavenly Father — or at least we ought to. When we cross paths with trouble, our first inclination should be to call on God. As the Bible says, he is “a very present help in trouble.” What a privilege it is to be able to call on the God of the Universe just as we would

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call on a personal friend for assistance. What a wonderful blessing it is to know that God is near and ready to help us.

The verse that we are looking at, however, informs us that there are some people who do not have this privilege.

Yes, there are some people whom God is truly distant from. Let’s focus on these people as we begin to look at Proverbs 15:29.

The first thing we notice from this verse is the separated sinner.

Our verse says, “the Lord is far from the wicked.”

Have you ever tried to make a long distance phone call to communicate with someone you had not heard from in a while, and each time you called them, there was interference on the line? You couldn’t hear them and they couldn’t hear you. It is a very frustrating experience. Yet, that is what happens when some people pray. They are unable to make a connection with God. Why are these people in such a position? Why are they experiencing interference on the prayer line? Because, as the Bible tells us, they are far from God. Their sins are what separate them from God and create interference when they try to communicate with God. Now, all of us, at one time or another, has sinned. We have strayed from God. As the hymn says, we are “prone to wander.” But, if we confess our sins, the Bible promises that God will forgive us of our sins and restore us to 32

fellowship with Himself. However, “the wicked” referred to in this verse are those who continue in sin and rebellion towards God. They know they are sinning, but they do not care about getting it right. They ignore God’s warnings, their conscience, the advice of others, and the conviction of the Holy Spirit.

While they are sinning, they do not think of the consequences of their actions. And, one of those consequences is the building up of a wall between them and God. They are unable to pray to God and receive an answer. What a terrible feeling it must be when a persistent, willful person realizes that he has become a separated sinner.

The second thing we notice from this verse is God’s choice.

It is interesting how this Scripture places “the Lord” in the position of action. It says, “the Lord is far from the wicked.”

In other words, God makes a choice not to hear and answer the prayers of one who refuses to confess and forsake his sin.

Of course, this does not mean that the Lord is far from the wicked in location and knowledge. He is omnipresent and omniscient — being everywhere and knowing everything at the same time. However, God is far from helping, comforting, blessing, and having fellowship with those who persist in sin against Him. As one commentator puts it, “God is near at hand to see their wickedness, but He is far away from answering their prayers.”

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Prayer is a privilege and blessing that we have from God. Many people tend to see prayer as the lever to a machine: when they pull that lever, they expect God to jump into action on their behalf. However, prayer is part of a relationship between you and God. If your actions are offensive to God, you cannot expect God to be attentive to your prayers. Just as a parent will not reward a child who is disobedient, God will not reward a child of His who does not listen and obey. William Gurnall said, “When people do not mind what God speaks to them in His Word, God doth as little mind what they say to Him in prayer.”

Now, that is bad news. That is the nasty medicine we have to swallow. However, this verse also gives us some good news about the privilege of prayer. The second half of this verse says, “but he [God] heareth the prayer of the righteous.” In other words, just as God refuses to hear the prayer of the wicked, He can and does choose to hear the prayer of the righteous.

The Hebrew word for “heareth” is the verb “sha-mah.” It means: “to hear with attention or interest; to listen to; to consent or agree to; to grant a request.” God actively chooses to listen to the prayers of those who are obedient to Him. He not only listens to their prayers, but He does so with the intent of doing something about their requests.

God may not answer your prayer in the way you want it to be answered, but He will answer it in the way that is best for you based on His divine perspective of your situation.

So, in this short verse, we see the separated sinner — the man who has cut himself off from God by his persistent disobedience. We also see God’s choice in the matter of

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prayer. He chooses to distance Himself from the separated sinner, but He chooses to draw near to the righteous man who prays.

The last thing we must consider from this verse is man’s voice.

Verse 29 says, the Lord “heareth the prayer of the righteous.” There are two questions you and I must ask ourselves: (1) Are we living righteously? And, (2) Are we lifting up our voice in prayer to God? God cannot hear someone who does not pray. That is why He urges us to “call unto me, and I will answer thee, and show thee great and mighty things which thou knowest not.” You must lift up your voice if you want your requests to be answered by God. Yes, many people miss out on the privilege of prayer because of their sin. But, another reason why many people miss out on the privilege of prayer is simply because they do not make use of the privilege of prayer. They do not pray as they should. God wants to show us great and mighty things in our lives, but He says we must first call on Him. We must “make our requests known to God.” If you went to your bank to make a withdrawal, you wouldn’t go in and stand around chatting with the other customers.

You wouldn’t sit down in the waiting area, sipping coffee, and hoping that you are noticed. You wouldn’t go in and admire the decor of the lobby. You would walk up to a teller, fill out a withdrawal slip, and request the amount of money you wanted to take out. That is how it is with prayer.

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If you make no request, there is no guarantee that you will get anything at all.

Charles Spurgeon said, “There is no need for us to go beating about the bush, and not telling the Lord distinctly what it is that we crave at His hands. Nor will it be seemly for us to make any attempt to use fine language; but let us ask God in the simplest and most direct manner for just the things we want.� It is a shame, dear friend, that so many Christians do not take advantage of the privilege of prayer.

In closing, ask yourself if you are using the privilege of prayer to its fullest extent. Have you confessed all of your sins? Are you striving to live obediently so that you can draw near to God and He will draw near to you? Are you consistently lifting your voice in prayer to God asking Him for what you need?

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4 3 Ways to Improve Your Prayer Life TEXT: Proverbs 28:9 9 He that turneth away his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer shall be abomination.

10 Whoso causeth the righteous to go astray in an evil way, he shall fall himself into his own pit: but the upright shall have good things in possession.

11 The rich man is wise in his own conceit; but the poor that hath understanding searcheth him out.

12 When righteous men do rejoice, there is great glory: but when the wicked rise, a man is hidden.

13 He that covereth his sins shall not prosper: but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy.

This is the final passage in Proverbs regarding the issue of prayer. And, as we look at this verse we see that it holds something in common with the previous two chapters on prayer from the book of Proverbs — and that is, the kind of prayer that God will not hear. Namely, the prayer of the person who is in sin and who refuses to obey God. I want us to look at this issue from a positive perspective.

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Instead of asking, “What are those things that impede or hinder my prayer life?” I want to ask, “What are some things that improve my prayer life?” T.M. Moore said, “It’s good to maintain a certain level of dissatisfaction with the state of our prayers. Since prayer is so important, and such a vital element of the life of faith, we would be remiss not to be always seeking ways to improve our communion with God through prayer.”

As we look at our main verse of Proverbs 28:9, and a few of the verses in the context, we see three ways we can improve our prayer lives and have our prayers answered

by God.

We can improve our prayer life by listening to and obeying God’s Word.

God clearly says, “He that turneth away his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer shall be abomination.”

In ancient Israel, the law of God was paramount. The government was based on the law of God, the religious system was based on the law of God, and the people were to base their lives on the law of God. And here, in this book of wisdom, we find that those who deliberately refuse to hear and obey God will have their prayers viewed as an abomination in God’s sight.

What is an abomination? The word “abomination” means something that is detestable, unclean, or loathsome.

Some of the most heinous sins are named as abominations in Scripture: among them are homosexuality, pride, lying, and murder. And here we see 38

that the prayer of one who does not listen to and obey God’s word is seen as an abomination in God’s sight.

Imagine God turning away in disgust when your voice reaches His ears. That’s not a very nice thing to think about, is it?

Now, some of you might be saying, ‘Well, the verse only talks about a person who doesn’t hear the law. It doesn’t say anything about obeying the law. I’m in church every week. I read the Bible every day. I hear the law just fine.

That verse is not talking about me.’

Before you go too far with that, let’s look at the meaning of “hearing the law.” In the royal courts and wealthy households of the ancient near east, servants had a phrase that they would repeat to their kings or their masters when they were commanded to do something. They would bow low and say, “To hear is to obey.” That phrase is also found multiple times in the Old Testament Scriptures, particularly in the books of the law, the first five books of the Bible. It is known in Hebrew as the “shema,” and the “shema” is the command to hear and to obey. In fact, the word for “hear” in Hebrew is “shamea” and the word for “obey” in Hebrew is “shama.” Hearing God’s word and obeying God’s word are closely tied together. According to the Holman Bible Dictionary, “obedience” simply means “to hear God’s Word and act accordingly.”

If you were getting ready to cross the street, and someone suddenly yelled, “Watch out!”, you would immediately stop, look around, and act accordingly with whatever was going on. That is what it means to hear and obey.

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You cannot separate hearing God’s Word from obeying God’s word. Hearing (or reading) and obeying God’s Word is the number one way you can improve your prayer life. When you hear and obey God’s Word, your prayers will no longer be an abomination in God’s sight. Instead, they will be like sweet incense offered up to Him — pleasant and welcome in His sight.

We can improve our prayer life by seeking out God’s wisdom.

In verse 9 we read, “He that turneth away his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer shall be abomination.”

As we read this verse, we see that the person who does not hear the law deliberately refuses to do so. It is not an accident that he does not hear the law. It is not happenstance. This person who does not listen to God does not do so simply because he has no intentions on obeying God. Isn’t it interesting how some of us refuse to listen to God, yet we want God to listen to us when we pray?

Just as we sometimes deliberately refuse to hear God’s law, if we want to improve our prayer life, we ought to deliberately seek out God’s law. We ought to seek His wisdom on purpose. God wants us to hear Him and to have His wisdom. The main way we get this wisdom is through prayer to Him. You will have confidence in prayer when you are going to the throne of God knowing that you are asking for something that He wants you to have.

Verse 11 of this passage states, “The rich man is wise in 40

his own conceit; but the poor that hath understanding searcheth him out.” Someone who has wealth or who has the finer things of life might think they are wise because they have it all together. However, that is not necessarily the case. Those who have obtained prosperity but have not put God first can easily be blinded by their wealth or possessions. But, here we see that the poor man who has “understanding” — that is, Godly wisdom — can see through the false promise of riches and material possessions. That is what this verse means when it says “searcheth him out.” A man who has wisdom will realize early on that happiness and fulfillment in life does not come from what he has or what he can obtain.

That is why we must actively seek God’s wisdom through prayer. James 1:5 says, “If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally (or freely), and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.” That is a promise God gave in His Word. Armin Gesswein said, “Promises predict the answers to prayer. They shape our praying. They motivate, direct and determine our supplication. This makes Christian praying different! How? In a very real sense we pray from the answer and with the answer in mind.”

What a wonderful thing it is to be able to go to God asking for wisdom knowing that He has promised to give it to us freely. This confidence alone is bound to improve your prayer life.

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We can improve our prayer life by confessing and repenting of sin.

In verse 13 of this chapter, we find these words: “He that covereth his sins shall not prosper: but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy.” This is yet another Scripture with a very plain meaning.

After looking at verse 9, some of you may have thought, ‘Well, I’ll start listening to and obeying God right now. I’ll start today.’ Well, if you have unconfessed sin and sin that you have not repented of in your heart, your prayer life will still be hindered. When we pray, we open up our hearts to God. And, when God looks in our hearts, if He sees uncleanness from the sins of the past, He will trouble our spirits about these things because He wants us to be pure vessels for Him. The blessings and answers to prayer will also be restricted (or will not come at all) until we make things right with Him and with others whom we have offended.

Our prayer life will be greatly improved if we uncover the sins of the past, and confess and forsake them so that we can prosper and find mercy in God’s sight.

Henry G. Bosch told this story in one of the Our Daily Bread devotionals: A woman said to a preacher, “I have a habit that I know is hurting my spiritual life and my relationships with other people — the habit of exaggeration. I start to tell something and I go on and on enlarging the story.

People suspect that it’s not true, and they lose confidence in me. When I pray, all these exaggerations keep popping

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up in my mind. I’m trying to get over it. Could you help me?”

The preacher responded, “Let’s talk to the Lord about it.”

So, the woman started praying. She said, “Lord, You know I have this habit of exaggeration...”

Suddenly, the preacher interrupted and said, “Call it lying and you may get over it!” The woman was deeply convicted and confessed her wrong.

We often excuse our sins by giving them more acceptable names. Our bad temper we call “nerves”; our untruthfulness we call “exaggeration”; our dishonesty we call “good business.” But, when we go to the Lord in prayer, there is no need to try to play games with Him. He knows what we are doing already. And we know that He does not approve of certain things in our lives. Getting rid of these sins no matter how long they have lingered in the past is a sure way to improve our experience of praying to God. If we want to improve our prayer life and see the hand and blessings of God on our lives and everything we do, we must hear and obey God, actively seek God’s wisdom, and confess and repent of any sin that is standing in the way of a successful, positive prayer life and the blessings that we can receive from God.

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5 The Tragedy of Fruitless and Futile Praying TEXT: Isaiah 16:12-13 And it shall come to pass, when it is seen that Moab is weary on the high place, that he shall come to his sanctuary to pray; but he shall not prevail. This is the word that the LORD hath spoken concerning Moab since that time.

Our passage comes from the prophetic book of Isaiah. In this chapter, Isaiah is both rebuking and lamenting over the people of Moab who were the descendants of Abraham’s nephew, Lot. This nation was born when Lot and his daughters were escaping from God’s judgment on the homosexual city of Sodom. Even though Lot was a righteous man, he still had some corruption in him which apparently influenced his daughters as well. When they got to safety in the mountains, Lot’s daughters began to worry about their family’s posterity. Tragically, they decided to get their father drunk, and they committed incest with him. One of the nations that descended from this relationship was the nation of Moab. At times, the Moabites had a negative relationship with the people of 45

Israel. It was the king of Moab who hired the prophet Balaam in hopes that he would curse God’s people. Later on, during the period of the judges, another Moabite king, Eglon, oppressed the Israelites. In Deuteronomy, God told the Israelites that they were not to wipe out the Moabites because they too were children of Abraham. But, because of this nation’s persistent wickedness, we find that Isaiah has been commanded to pronounce God’s judgment on Moab.

In verse 12, Isaiah predicts that, as they are being judged, the Moabites will “go up to their high places” to pray, but that their prayers will be fruitless and futile. In other words, their prayers will be in vain. The Clark Sisters sang a song that included these words: “Is my living in vain? Is my giving in vain? Is my praying in vain? Is my fasting in vain?” The Moabites would have to answer “yes” to at least one of those questions.

James Coffman writes in his commentary on this passage, God’s “rejection of Moab appears here to have been founded upon compelling reasons... Throughout this passage, the pride, arrogance, boastfulness and stubbornness of Moab are repeatedly stressed.” What a tragedy it would be if God said that your prayers or my prayers were fruitless and futile. Let’s look at some of the marks of fruitless and futile prayers from this passage.

A fruitless and futile prayer is one that is addressed to the wrong somebody.

The verse reads, “And it shall come to pass, when it is seen that Moab is weary on the high place, that he shall 46

come to his sanctuary to pray...” Whose sanctuary is spoken of in this verse? Scholars agree that the sanctuary spoken of in this verse is the sanctuary of the false god Che-mosh. The Moabites, who were being punished by God, ran to their holy places and offered prayers to a false god. Of course, praying to someone or something that does not exist, that cannot hear and answer you, is fruitless and futile.

What the Moabites were doing can be compared to a situation in which you or I would repeatedly dial a number meaning to order pizza from Papa John’s. But, each time we dial that number, we get a message telling us that that number is out of service. Yet, we continue to dial that number expecting to order some pizza and have it delivered. That is fruitless and futile.

You might recall the situation with Elijah and the priests of Baal in I Kings. The priests of Baal prayed, yelled, cut themselves till they bled, and danced themselves into a frenzy, yet Baal didn’t answer because he didn’t exist.

Elijah prayed a simple, but powerful prayer to the one, true, and living God, and He answered with fire from Heaven One writer said, “It is painful to think of the multitude of sacrifices that have been offered up beneath every sky, of the labors that have been undergone, of the pilgrimages that have been made, of the tortures that have been inflicted, of the privations that have been endured, of the observances that have been gone through, and, if last not least, of the prayers that have been presented from full and burdened hearts, that have all been wasted, because

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the devotees have all been making their appeal to an ear that could not hear and to a hand that could not help.”

Have you ever looked to the wrong source for the answer to something that only God could help you with? Have you ever looked to money, other people, or material possessions to deliver you from a difficult situation? Have you ever run to a counselor looking for a quick fix to your problem when all you had to do was turn to the Lord and confess your sins? Are you looking to the government for solutions when you should be looking to God to supply your every need? Are you only giving God lip-service, while your heart is set on having your needs supplied by somebody else?

If you look to anybody or anyone else but the one, true, and living God to answer your prayers, your prayers will certainly be fruitless and futile.

The second type of prayer that is fruitless and futile is a prayer prayed with an unrepentant attitude.

In this passage, Isaiah addresses how the Moabites approach God. He says in verse 6: “We have heard of the pride of Moab; he is very proud: even of his haughtiness, and his pride, and his wrath...” Not only were the Moabites trying to fix their spiritual dilemma by praying to a nonexistent god, but they were going about it in a proud and haughty way.

The Moabites thought they could fool God by their seemingly righteous actions. They tried to appear spiritual; 48

they tried to act as though they were repenting. However, God looked at their hearts, and He saw that they were still proud and rebellious on the inside. The act of prayer alone is not sufficient for God to turn His hand of blessing and favor back on the life of one who has been disobedient.

Prayer with the right heart — a humble and contrite heart — is what God wants to see.

A father was driving down the road one day with his little daughter in the back seat. He happened to glance in the rearview mirror and was shocked to see his daughter standing up and dancing in the seat. He told her, “Girl, sit down and put your seatbelt on right now!” So, she sat down, and the father drove on. A few minutes later, the girl called from the back seat. She said, “Daddy...” He said, “What?” And she said, “I just want you to know, I’m still standing on the inside.”

How many times have we gone to God with our bodies in a humble posture, but standing proudly and rebelliously in our hearts and spirits? If we do not want our prayers to be fruitless or futile, we must come to God as the hymn-writer said: With broken heart and contrite sigh, A trembling sinner, Lord, I cry; Thy pard’ning grace is rich and free: O God, be merciful to me!

If you want God to answer your prayers, you must come before Him with the right spirit and attitude. It’s about what’s on the inside.

The first kind of prayer that is fruitless and futile is one that 49

is addressed to the wrong person. The second type of prayer that is fruitless and futile is a prayer prayed with an unrepentant attitude.

A third kind of prayer that is fruitless and futile is a prayer that is prayed with a wrong motive.

Listen to these words of finality from Isaiah’s prophecy regarding Moab. Isaiah says that when Moab prays “he shall not prevail. This is the word that the Lord hath spoken concerning Moab...” One reason why the Moabites would not have their prayers answered is because they prayed with the wrong motives.

Their prayers were only a cry of despair. They were suffering under the punishment of the Lord, and wanted to be delivered from that punishment, but they did not want to truly turn back to God. They came to God reluctantly.

They tried everything else before they came to God. They said among themselves, ‘Nothing else is working. Our false gods aren’t answering. Constantly going up to our high places is not working. Let’s go and try the God of our cousins the Israelites.’

If you come to God with that kind of attitude, you are wasting your time. God will not respond to half-hearted, insincere prayers. The Bible commands us to “come boldly to the throne of grace” and to come “believing that He is and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him.” For your prayers to prevail with God, you must have genuine faith and trust in God. Do you need forgiveness? Then, go to God confident that 50

He will forgive you because the Bible says, “if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

Do you have physical needs that need to be supplied?

Then, go to God confident that He will give you what you need because the Bible says that He “will supply all our needs according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.”

Do you need a relationship to be repaired? Then, go to God believing that He will fix what needs to be fixed because His Word says it is “good and pleasant for brethren to dwell together in unity.”

Charles G. Finney said, “Persons never need hesitate, because of their past sins, to approach God with the fullest confidence. If they now repent, and are conscious of fully and honestly returning to God with all their heart, they have no reason to fear being repulsed from the footstool of mercy.” God often gives in proportion to your faith and trust in Him. If you want big things from God, then you must go expecting big things from God. No one has to pray prayers that are fruitless and futile. If you direct your prayer to right Person, if you pray with the right attitude, and if you pray with the right motive, God will hear and answer your prayers just as He has promised.

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6 The Positivity of Pain (Part 1) TEXT: Isaiah 26:12-18 12 Lord, thou wilt ordain peace for us: for thou also hast wrought all our works in us.

13 O Lord our God, other lords beside thee have had dominion over us: but by thee only will we make mention of thy name.

14 They are dead, they shall not live; they are deceased, they shall not rise: therefore hast thou visited and destroyed them, and made all their memory to perish.

15 Thou hast increased the nation, O Lord, thou hast increased the nation: thou art glorified: thou hadst removed it far unto all the ends of the earth.

16 Lord, in trouble have they visited thee, they poured out a prayer when thy chastening was upon them.

17 Like as a woman with child, that draweth near the time of her delivery, is in pain, and crieth out in her pangs; so have we been in thy sight, O Lord.

18 We have been with child, we have been in pain, we have as it were brought forth wind; we have not wrought any deliverance in the earth; neither have the inhabitants of the world fallen.

Most of us cringe internally when we hear the word “pain.�

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We don’t like pain, and we want to avoid pain at all costs.

I have shared with others more than once that when I go to the hospital, no matter what my ailment might be, the thing I want the doctor to focus on before he does anything else is getting rid of the pain. Once we deal with the pain issue, we can deal with everything else. I’m not afraid of dying, but when it’s my time to go, I want to go without having to experience any pain.

However, as much as we dislike pain, we often have to remind ourselves that positivity can come from pain.

Certainly you have heard the phrase, “no pain, no gain.”

Athletes — such as those who competed in the Winter Olympics which just wrapped up — have to undergo rigorous training, which often involves physical pain, if they want to stay at the top of their game. They have to sacrifice and do without in order to succeed. So, there are some positive results that come from pain — not only in the physical realm, but in the spiritual realm as well. And, from this passage, we want to look at some of the positive things that can come from painful situations.

The children of Israel were no strangers to pain. God often had to inflict pain on them when they were disobedient to Him. The children of Israel experienced this pain through various forms of chastisement including famine, earthquakes, slavery, and being oppressed by their heathen neighbors. Often, it took years of pain for the children of Israel to admit their wrongs and turn back to God. In this passage, we find that Isaiah is prophetically sharing with us a prayer that the children of Israel will offer up to God following a time of pain. This reaction by the children of Israel will take place during the Millennial

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Kingdom when Jesus Christ sits on the throne of David, and all authority and power in the earth is in His hands.

The children of Israel will have gone through a time of extreme persecution, yet, in their prayer to God, they will express their thankfulness despite the trials they have suffered. In other words, they will find positivity in their pain.

What are some of the things we can takeaway from this example of finding positivity in our pain?

Painful experiences help us realize that all good things that are done are accomplished by and through God Almighty.

In verse 12 of our passage, the Israelites say, “Lord, thou wilt ordain peace for us: for thou also hast wrought all our works in us.” Notice the emphasis in this verse is not on what the children of Israel have done, but on what the Lord has done.

The Lord is the one who will bring about peace for the Israelites. This peace for Israel is a rest which the country will experience from the hostile nations which she is surrounded by. Can you imagine what that will look like?

Right now, Israel is faced with military threats from hostile nations on every front — Hamas in the southwest, Hezbollah and Syria in the North, Egyptian Islamists in the south, and Iran in the East. Imagine one day, Israel waking up to find that all of those nations had renounced their desire to see Israel annihilated — they had willingly and voluntarily disarmed and laid down their weapons.

Imagine the peace that would take hold in the Middle East because of that. Well, that kind of day is coming in the 55

future Millennial Kingdom, and the children of Israel will recognize that it is God alone who brought about that peace through Jesus Christ.

Not only do the children of Israel acknowledge God as the source of their peace, but out of their pain, they realize that God is the one who has accomplished all that is good for them as a nation. In praise to God, they say, “thou also hast wrought all our works in us.” The word “wrought” means to accomplish, to establish, or to set up. Israel was a nation that had been established and planted in its location directly by God. Her very existence to this day is no accident.

More than anything else, we ought to want to be established by God — to be rooted and grounded in the firm, unshakable way in which only He can ground us.

However, like the children of Israel, we may have to go through a painful situation in order to recognize the value of the Lord setting up our nation. Israel, abandoned her spiritual moorings by following after false gods several times, however, God always sent His prophets to draw the nation back to Himself. Sometimes, God had to allow pain to come upon the nation, in the form of oppression by one of her heathen enemies, in order to get His people to realize that it was Him who had rescued, saved, delivered, and protected them.

Painful experiences force us to acknowledge past idolatry.

Verse 13 reads, “O Lord our God, other lords beside thee have had dominion over us...” The term “other lords” refers 56

to the false gods of the heathen nations surrounding them.

There were two ways in which Israel allowed herself to be under the dominion of these ‘other lords.’

The first way was when they willingly rejected the one, true God and began worshipping the false gods of their neighbors. They submitted themselves and their children to the influence of idolatry in the land. They broke their covenant with God and placed themselves under the lordship of a non-existent false god. This was action by which they brought pain and punishment from God upon themselves.

The second way in which they were under the ‘dominion of other lords’ is when God allowed them to be carried away captive to other lands. In those lands, they were not able to worship God freely as they were able to do in their own homeland. They had to abide by customs and rules that did not favor them as God’s chosen people. They were oppressed by the Egyptians, the Assyrians, the Babylonians, and the Romans. God allowed them to suffer through this pain as punishment for abandoning their worship of Him. However, the Israelites gained clarity through their negative experiences. They realized the ‘other lords’ for what they were, and they acknowledged their idolatry for what it was.

What does idolatry look like for us today? Idolatry is placing anything or anyone before God in our hearts. What do you value most in life? Is it your money, your job, your family, or some other relationship? Have you made an idol out of success, popularity, or status? Have you allowed someone

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or something to come between you and God? Sometimes, God will allow us to go through painful experiences in order to see our situation from His perspective so that we will acknowledge our sin of idolatry.

Painful experiences force us to realize the foolishness of trusting in anything or anyone else beside God. In verse 12, the Israelites go on to say, “but by thee only will we make mention of thy name.” The painfulness of chastisement caused the children of Israel to have a change of heart. They repented of their idolatry, and made a commitment to only worship the one true God. Geoffrey Grogan said, “Obviously this verse does not suggest that the ‘other lords’ had real existence as deities but simply that they were believed to have and that their rule was sinfully acknowledged by the people in past times.”

How often have each of us allowed ourselves to be ruled by some false god or idol such as money, success, or relationships? How many times have we turned away from God and served some other purpose only to find out how futile and unfulfilling such a life is. The pain caused by loss of finances, fleeting success, or betrayal and broken relationships should help us see the foolishness of trusting in anyone or anything but God. When we experience painful situations in our lives, we ought to learn and grow from them. We ought to look for 58

the positive spiritual lessons that God is trying to teach us. Instead of growing bitter and resentful, we should do as the children of Israel will one day do — acknowledge their own wrongdoing and begin to turn back to God as the one, true source of their success, blessing, and happiness.

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7 The Positivity of Pain (Part 2) TEXT: Isaiah 26:12-18 12 Lord, thou wilt ordain peace for us: for thou also hast wrought all our works in us.

13 O Lord our God, otherlords beside thee have had dominion over us: but by thee only will we make mention of thy name.

14 They are dead, they shall not live; they are deceased, they shall not rise: therefore hast thou visited and destroyed them, and made all their memory to perish.

15 Thou hast increased the nation, O Lord, thou hast increased the nation: thou art glorified: thou hadst removed it far unto all the ends of the earth.

16 Lord, in trouble have they visited thee, they poured out a prayer when thy chastening was upon them.

17 Like as a woman with child, that draweth near the time of her delivery, is in pain, and crieth out in her pangs; so have we been in thy sight, O Lord.

18 We have been with child, we have been in pain, we have as it were brought forth wind; we have not wrought any deliverance in the earth; neither have the inhabitants of the world fallen.

We began talking about how God allows our painful 61

experiences to be used to bring about positive results.

Have you ever taken bitter medicine? It didn’t taste good when it was going down, but when it spread throughout your body and had done its work, it made you feel better.

Pain gets our attention. Pain makes us stop and ask, “What is God trying to tell me?”

C.S. Lewis said, “We can rest contentedly in our sins and in our stupidities, and some will admit that we can ignore even pleasure. But pain insists upon being attended to.

God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our consciences, but shouts in our pains. It is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world.”

Isaiah gives to us a prayer from the children of Israel who were no strangers to pain. They often suffered judgment and misfortune as a result of their disobedience to God. We are going to wrap up our look at this prayer, as we continue to see the positivity that can come from pain.

We see that pain causes us to acknowledge God as the source of our blessings.

As the children of Israel come out of their painful experience, in verse 15 they say, “Thou hast increased the nation, O Lord, thou hast increased the nation: thou art glorified: thou hadst removed it far unto all the ends of the earth.”

This verse is a prophetic description of the future condition of the nation of Israel. God’s original plan for Israel was for them to worship and serve Him with their whole hearts

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and be an example to the heathen nations surrounding them. God promised to bless them if they did this.

However, they failed to do so and God had to defer many of His blessings. Nevertheless, God’s intent for the Israelites remained the same. This passage and other passages in the Bible let us know that God will one day complete His plan for the nation of Israel and bless them like never before.

In fact, in the book of Isaiah, scholars have noted that this passage comes at the end of a series of judgment oracles.

Bob Utley writes that these verses remind us that “Judgment is not the last word. The God of grace and mercy has an eternal, inclusive, redemptive plan.” It is never God’s will to inflict permanent pain. Rather, He only allows pain in our lives in order that we may see the wrongness of the paths that we choose for ourselves and turn back to His righteous path.

When we turn back to God, we realize that He is responsible for our blessings. The devil tries to cloud our minds and make us think that our blessings come from our own ingenuity or hard work. When we begin to see ourselves as the source of our blessings, we begin to think that we can do what we want and still be in control of the consequences. However, when this happens, God has to strip us of our blessings, cause pain in our lives, and get us to realize that we are not, as the poem says, “the master of our fate and the captain of our soul.”

A positive effect of pain is that it makes us sit up and acknowledge that all that we have and all that we have accomplished comes from God and God alone. If we want

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His blessings on our lives, we must learn from our pain and turn back to Him.

We see that pain causes us to turn to God in prayer.

Verse 16 reads, “Lord, in trouble have they visited thee, they poured out a prayer when thy chastening was upon them.” This is another positive thing that comes from pain — it causes us to turn back to God in prayer.

Several times in the book of Psalms, the Bible speaks of those who “forget God.” Those people who go through life never acknowledging God or His commands. They think that they can live life their own way and control the consequences. However, when pain comes, when tragedy strikes, when sickness invades their body, many of these people immediately realize their need for God. They start going back to church. They start calling on family members and friends who have a genuine relationship with God. They start praying again.

Matthew Henry said, “Afflictions bring us to God and show us our dependence upon Him. Those that before seldom looked at God now visit him; they come frequently and they become friendly [with God]. Before, prayer came drop by drop, but now they pour out a prayer; it comes now like water from a fountain... Pain will make men fervent and fluent in prayer.”

One professor described a Christian’s response to pain this way: He said that he once rescued a bird from the claws of his cat. Even though the bird’s wing was broken, 64

the frightened bird did everything it could to run away from him. Perhaps you have seen a bird hobbling along the ground, in pain, dragging its injured wing. However, contrast this with the response of his daughter when he took her to the doctor. She had strep throat, and the doctor needed to give her a shot. The girl was frightened when she saw the needle about to prick her skin, and she cried out in anticipation of the pain. But all the while, she gripped her father tightly around his neck.

Pain ought to make us more like a sick child than an injured bird. Pain ought to cause us to cling tightly to our Father in Heaven — turn back to Him if we have gone astray. One of the positive effects of pain is that it causes us to turn to God in prayer.

We see that pain causes us to focus on positive results.

Look now at verses 17-18: “Like as a woman with child, that draweth near the time of her delivery, is in pain, and crieth out in her pangs; so have we been in thy sight, O Lord. We have been with child, we have been in pain...”

What a vivid description of the positive effects of pain. A pregnant woman going into labor experiences some of the most excruciating pain known to man. Yet, out of that pain comes a beautiful result — a newborn baby. The children of Israel liken their chastisement to childbirth. For some time they experience pain and distress. However, when it is all over, their pain has brought forth something good — obedience and righteous living which results in God’s blessings.

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When you go to the gym and you are working out, you may sometimes experience pain. It may take extra effort to lift those weights; you may have to strain to finish that two-mile walk on the treadmill. But you keep going because, instead of focusing on the pain, you focus on the positive results that come from exercise. You might say, ‘This pain will help me live longer. This pain may keep me from getting sick in the future. This pain will help me have the energy and stamina I need to go throughout this day.’

If God is chastising you, don’t focus on the chastisement.

Adopt a willing attitude and choose to focus on the positive results that God wants to see brought about in your life because of the pain that you are experiencing. As C.S. Lewis said, “Pain is not good in itself. What is good in any painful experience is for the sufferer to submit to the will of God and for the spectators [those who observe the sufferer] to be aroused to compassion and acts of mercy.”

The example of the children of Israel lets us know that God’s will is for us to enjoy His many blessings. However, in order for us to enjoy those blessings, we must be obedient to Him. When we are not obedient, God often has to allow pain in our lives to get us to acknowledge Him, pray to Him, and see the positive results that He wants to bring about. Today, let’s choose to learn from our chastisement, to acknowledge God in our difficulties, and to see the positivity in pain.

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8 The Biblical Response to Bad News TEXT: Isaiah 37:1-4 1 And it came to pass, when king Hezekiah heard it, that he rent his clothes, and covered himself with sackcloth, and went into the house of the Lord 2 And he sent Eliakim, who was over the household, and Shebna the scribe, and the elders of the priests covered with sackcloth, unto Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz.

3 And they said unto him, Thus saith Hezekiah, This day is a day of trouble, and of rebuke, and of blasphemy: for the children are come to the birth, and there is not strength to bring forth.

4 It may be the Lord thy God will hear the words of Rabshakeh, whom the king of Assyria his master hath sent to reproach the living God, and will reprove the words which the Lord thy God hath heard: wherefore lift up thy prayer for the remnant that is left.

We come to a narrative portion of the book of the prophet Isaiah. This portion of Isaiah has to do with King Hezekiah of Judah. Hezekiah was the sixteenth king of Judah. He

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reigned during the time of the divided kingdom, when Israel had her own king and Judah had her own king. For the most part, Hezekiah was a good king who led the nation in the proper worship of God. He destroyed the idols and pagan altars that previous wicked kings had set up. He renewed the celebration of the Passover. The Bible says that Hezekiah “did that which was right in the sight of the Lord, according to all that David his father did...He trusted in the Lord God of Israel; so that after him was none like him among all the kings of Judah, nor any that were before him. For he clave to the Lord, and departed not from following him, but kept his commandments, which the Lord commanded Moses.”

Hezekiah was a good king who ruled his kingdom well.

However, Isaiah informs us that one day, Hezekiah received some bad news.

Hezekiah receives bad news.

The Bible says, “And it came to pass, when king Hezekiah heard it...” What did King Hezekiah hear? If we flip back to Isaiah 37, we find that the King of Assyria was on a war campaign in the region. He had fought against and conquered several of the small nations around Judah, and now he had turned his attention to Judah. While he was battling in southern part of Judah, he sent “a great host” under the command of Rab-sha-keh to lay siege on Jerusalem.

Rabshakeh addresses Hezekiah’s officials who are watching from the city wall. He tries to intimidate and belittle the Jews. He tells of Assyria’s recent victories and 68

calls on Hezekiah to surrender. He also mocks Israel’s God and claims that God himself will not deliver the Jews from the king of Assyria. The Jews are trapped inside Jerusalem and they cannot look to anyone else for help.

J. Alec Motyer said that at this point, “City after city had fallen to Sennacherib and long lines of deportees are already snaking their bitter way into exile.”

The Jewish officials return to Hezekiah and tell him everything that Rab-sha-keh had said. They let Hezekiah know about the bad news. It is so bad that the Bible tells us that when Hezekiah heard it, he “rent his clothes, and covered himself with sackcloth.” The tearing of clothes and the wearing of sackcloth were expressions normally reserved for times of deep mourning, usually at the loss of a family member. But, in Hezekiah’s view, this situation was so bad that these expressions were appropriate.

Hezekiah saw his situation for what it was. Often, when we face some trial or difficulty, we never see the situation for what it is, and thus we prevent ourselves from dealing with it properly. The only way to overcome a bad situation is to not live in denial and just accept that it is a bad situation.

Hezekiah responds to the bad news.

Verse 1 of our passage tells us that not only did Hezekiah tear his clothes and cover himself in sackcloth, but he also “went into the house of the Lord.”

Hezekiah’s reaction is different from how so many people react today. Often, when some extreme difficulty or hardship comes, people blame God and run away from 69

the church. Some people, like the now highly-esteemed scholar and writer, C.S. Lewis who lost his mother when he was a child, become atheists. They say that they cannot believe there is a God because, if there was a God, He would not allow such bad things to happen in the world.

But Hezekiah does not run from God in his time of trouble.

He turns to God and calls on Him for help. David Guzik says, “Hezekiah did not allow his mourning and grief to spin him into a rejection of the Lord’s power and help. He knew this was a more necessary time than ever to seek the Lord.”

Hezekiah quickly got into God’s presence for he knew that that is where he could receive the spiritual and mental strength to carry on despite the circumstances. We must do the same thing when we face negative situations. If you are informed of the bad news that you are going to be laid off, your first step should not be to go and talk about it with your boss, but to talk to God about it. If you have received the bad news that you are getting a divorce, your first step should not be to talk with your spouse, but rather to talk to God. If you have received the bad news that you have cancer, your first step should not be to schedule an appointment with a cancer specialist but to talk to God. One of the founding fathers of Gospel music, Charles A. Tindley, wrote a poem titled “Leave It There.” Listen to these lines: If your body suffers pain and your health you can’t regain, And your soul is almost sinking in despair, Jesus knows the pain you feel, He can save and He can heal; 70

Take your burden to the Lord and leave it there.

When your enemies assail and your heart begins to fail, Don’t forget that God in heaven answers prayer; He will make a way for you and will lead you safely through.

Take your burden to the Lord and leave it there.

Whatever bad news you receive, do as King Hezekiah did and take it to the Lord in prayer.

Hezekiah obtains reinforcement against the bad news.

Verse 2 says, “And he sent Eliakim, who was over the household, and Shebna the scribe, and the elders of the priests covered with sackcloth, unto Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz.” Hezekiah sends some of his officials to inform Isaiah about what is going on. They tell Isaiah “It may be the Lord thy God will hear the words of Rab-shakeh...and will reprove the words which the Lord thy God hath heard: wherefore lift up thy prayer for the remnant that is left.”

Hezekiah could not see his own way out of the trouble that he was in. He knew, however, that their only hope was that God would take offense at the blasphemies of Rab-shakeh, and be stirred to act against the Assyrians. So, he sends his officials to get ahold of God’s man and ask him to pray for the situation. He says, “Isaiah, pray for us. Our nation is devastated by the Assyrian invasion, and only Jerusalem is left standing. Pray for the remnant that is left that we may survive.”

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What does this teach us? It shows us that when we receive bad news, one of the best things we can do is get someone else whom we know is in touch with God to pray for us and with us. There is power when people touch and agree in prayer.

But, admitting that we are in trouble and asking for prayer goes against our nature. So often, we are proud and we don’t want anybody to know that we have problems. Well, sometimes, God may allow trouble in our lives to get us to admit that we are not as self-sufficient as we like to think we are. Like Hezekiah, we have to call on God and on others for help. John Oswalt said, “This kind of admission of helplessness is frequently a necessity before divine help can be received. So long as we believe that we only need some assistance, we are still treating ourselves as lords of the situation, and that latent pride cuts us off from all that God would give us.”

Be willing to be humble and ask others to pray with you and for you.

Hezekiah shows us the appropriate reaction to negative situations: he quickly calls on God and calls on others to pray about the difficulty that he faced. Whatever situation you face, God wants to step in and resolve it. But you have to do your part. You have to take the matter to the Lord in prayer and get others to pray with you as the Lord leads you.

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9 The Benefits of Going to the House of Prayer TEXT: Isaiah 56:4-7 4 For thus saith the Lord unto the eunuchs that keep my sabbaths, and choose the things that please me, and take hold of my covenant; 5 Even unto them will I give in mine house and within my walls a place and a name better than of sons and of daughters: I will give them an everlasting name, that shall not be cut off.

6 Also the sons of the stranger, that join themselves to the Lord, to serve him, and to love the name of the Lord, to be his servants, every one that keepeth the sabbath from polluting it, and taketh hold of my covenant; 7 Even them will I bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer: their burnt offerings and their sacrifices shall be accepted upon mine altar; for mine house shall be called an house of prayer for all people.

We are all familiar with the story in the New Testament about how Jesus Christ goes into the Temple and finds

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that the religious leaders have turned it into a marketplace.

There is all manner of buying and selling going on there.

Jesus made a whip and began driving the merchants out of the temple. He famously said, “It is written, my house shall be called a house of prayer, but ye have made it a den of thieves.”

John tells us that the disciples recalled an Old Testament passage that says, ‘Zeal for thine house hath eaten me up.’ However, another Old Testament passage is also involved in this story, and that is the passage we just read.

Jesus Christ was quoting the message that God the Father had given to Isaiah when He said, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer.’

It is a tragedy that many Christians — just like the Jewish religious leaders — have abandoned one of the main purposes of the church, and that is to be a ‘house of prayer.’

According to the book, Evangelism: Christ’s Imperative Commission, by Roland Leavell, statistics show that while 30% of people who claim to be Christians never attend a Sunday church service, 80% of people who claim to be Christians never attend a prayer meeting. What is perhaps even sadder is that 20% never even pray.

I want to share with you briefly from Isaiah on the subject of the house of prayer. From this passage, we notice three things.

The house of prayer is a place for obedient believers.

Notice some of the people whom God says He will bring 76

into His house of prayer: “For thus saith the Lord unto the eunuchs that keep my sabbaths, and choose the things that please me, and take hold of my covenant...Even them will I bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer...”

Let’s take a moment and look at the context of this passage: Isaiah is speaking to the Jewish people in exile.

Many of them are still scattered abroad in foreign lands.

During this time in their history, many of them want to know how they should go about serving and worshiping God in a strange land. Well, God tells them through Isaiah that they are to worship God in the foreign lands the same way they would worship God at home — that is by being obedient to God’s commands. That is why in verse 1 of chapter 56, Isaiah says, “Keep ye judgment, and do justice.” He encourages the people to keep the sabbath day and keep their hands from doing evil.

Then, we see what God promises to do with His obedient children. Verse 7 says, “Even them will I bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer.”

We see here that the house of prayer is a place for obedient believers.

Now, during the time of the exile, the Jews gathered in local structures known as synagogues. According to Tracey Rich’s “Judaism 101”, “The synagogue is the Jewish equivalent of a church, more or less. It is the center of the Jewish religious community...At a minimum, a synagogue is a bey-it tef-i-lah, a house of prayer. It is the place where Jews come together for community prayer services.” Attending a synagogue once a week was a

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requirement for a Jew who was serious about obeying the law.

Likewise, if we as Christians under the new covenant are serious about praying to God, we will make it a priority to attend and participate in our church’s mid-week prayer meeting. When the Bible says, ‘Forsake not the assembling of yourselves together,’ that was not just limited to once-a-week on Sunday morning. Jack Taylor said, “The early Church exerted the privilege of prayer. The Church of today is in danger of deserting the privilege. With all of our technology, invention and innovation, let us emphasize, centralize, and prioritize on prayer.”

Ladies and gentlemen, a part of our obedience to God is prayer, and the house of prayer is indeed a place for obedient believers.

The house of prayer is a place for all people.

Verse 6 reads, “Also the sons of the stranger, that join themselves to the Lord, to serve him, and to love the name of the Lord, to be his servants... Even them will I bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer.”

Once again, we must look at the context of this passage.

As the Jewish people were scattered among foreign lands, their faith in the one, true God began to spread to the foreigners or “strangers” they lived among. There were some Babylonians, Persians, and Assyrians who began to worship and serve the one, true God. They were like Ruth, the Moabite woman, who told Naomi, “Thy people 78

will be my people, and thy God my God.” H.D.M. Spence and Joseph Exell inform us that as the exile drew to a close, many of these foreigners wanted to go to Palestine along with the Jews. However, they were concerned that the Jews once back in their homeland would institute a strict form of their religion which would ban them from the Temple, from the synagogues, and from worshiping the true God alongside the Jews.

God responds to this concern by inviting them to come and gather joyfully before Him in the house of prayer. He throws open the doors to “the sons of the stranger, that join themselves to the Lord, to serve him, and to love the name of the Lord, to be his servants.” We see here that the house of prayer is a place for all people.

David Guzik notes something interesting about the incident when Jesus threw the merchants out of the Temple.

He says that not only was Jesus angry to find buying and selling going on in the Temple, but He was angry because the Jewish religious leaders had violated the principle of God’s house being a house of prayer for all people. At that time, the Temple was divided into two courts — an inner court for the Jews, and an outer court for the Gentiles.

Mark tells us that Jesus taught the people saying, “Is it not written, My house shall be called of all nations the house of prayer?”

God wants to see Jew and Gentile, rich and poor, educated and uneducated — He wants to see everybody making their way to the house of prayer. That’s why He sent Jesus Christ to die for the whole world so that there would be no

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more barriers between God and any man, woman, or child.

The house of prayer is a place for all people. The midweek prayer meeting is a meeting for all people — not just the pastor, not just the church staff, not just the faithful few — everyone! Someone once said, “You can tell how popular a church is by who comes on Sunday morning. You can tell how popular the pastor or evangelist is by who comes on Sunday night. But you can tell how popular Jesus is by who comes to the prayer meeting.”

The house of prayer is a place for the obedient believer.

The house of prayer is a place for all people.

The house of prayer is a place for blessed people.

Verse 7 reads, “I will make them joyful in my house of prayer: their burnt offerings and their sacrifices shall be accepted upon mine altar; for mine house shall be called an house of prayer for all people.” There are blessings to be received if you go to the house of prayer.

First, God promises joy for His people who go to the house of prayer. When we really get a hold of the fact that God loves us and wants to hear from us, this will bring joy into our lives. As Christians, prayer draws us closer to God and closer to being like Christ. When we go to the house of prayer, we also experience the uplifting fellowship of other believers. Seeing and hearing people praying for each other in a corporate setting will be an encouragement for us to pray as well. In Philippians 1, Paul said that he offered prayer requests for his brothers and sisters in Christ “with joy.” Each of us ought to do the same.

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Now, look at how else God promises to bless His people who go to the house of prayer. He says, “their burnt offerings and their sacrifices shall be accepted.” Speaking to the children of Israel and to the foreigners, God promises to receive their sacrifices because they are coming to the house of prayer, and He is the God who hears and answers prayer. In fact, Psalm 65:2 says, “O thou that hearest prayer, unto thee shall all flesh come.”

God guarantees that if you are obedient to Him and if you are faithful in praying, He will hear your prayers and He will answer your prayers according to what He knows is best for you. The more you pray alone and with others, and the more you see God answering prayer, the more you will want to pray. Dr. C. Wayne Johnson said, “There is nothing that generates excitement and deepens faith more than witnessing the direct intervention of God in answered prayer.”

God blesses those who are serious about praying to Him and who make up their minds to go to the house of prayer not only on Sunday, but during the week. As Charles Spurgeon said, ‘the prayer meeting is the powerhouse of the church. If the engine room is out of action then the whole mill will grind to a halt. We cannot expect blessing if we do not ask.’

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10 When God Says, ‘Don’t Pray’ (Part 1) TEXT: Jeremiah 7:1-16 1 The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying, 2 Stand in the gate of the Lord’s house, and proclaim there this word, and say, Hear the word of the Lord, all ye of Judah, that enter in at these gates to worship the Lord.

3 Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, Amend your ways and your doings, and I will cause you to dwell in this place.

4 Trust ye not in lying words, saying, The temple of the Lord, The temple of the Lord, The temple of the Lord, are these.

5 For if ye throughly amend your ways and your doings; if ye throughly execute judgment between a man and his neighbour; 6 If ye oppress not the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, and shed not innocent blood in this place, neither walk after other gods to your hurt: 7 Then will I cause you to dwell in this place, in the land that I gave to your fathers, for ever and ever.

8 Behold, ye trust in lying words, that cannot profit.

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9 Will ye steal, murder, and commit adultery, and swear falsely, and burn incense unto Baal, and walk after other gods whom ye know not; 10 And come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name, and say, We are delivered to do all these abominations?

11 Is this house, which is called by my name, become a den of robbers in your eyes? Behold, even I have seen it, saith the Lord.

12 But go ye now unto my place which was in Shiloh, where I set my name at the first, and see what I did to it for the wickedness of my people Israel.

13 And now, because ye have done all these works, saith the Lord, and I spake unto you, rising up early and speaking, but ye heard not; and I called you, but ye answered not; 14 Therefore will I do unto this house, which is called by my name, wherein ye trust, and unto the place which I gave to you and to your fathers, as I have done to Shiloh.

15 And I will cast you out of my sight, as I have cast out all your brethren, even the whole seed of Ephraim.

16 Therefore pray not thou for this people, neither lift up cry nor prayer for them, neither make intercession to me: for I will not hear thee.

The Bible is replete with commands, admonishments, encouragement, and even incentives to pray. However, this passage in Jeremiah is quite interesting because, from our feeble, human perspective, God is doing something that we would not expect Him to do. In this passage, God tells Jeremiah not to pray. It might be hard to imagine that God would say such a thing to one of His chosen ministers. But, yet, here it is in the pages of

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Scripture.

What would prompt God to issue such a directive? Why would God tell one of His servants to cease doing something that is good? As we seek to understand this passage, we must grapple with three aspects of this instance when God says, ‘do not pray.’

First, let’s consider the prophet.

As we read this passage, we are hearing “the word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord.” God commanded the prophet Jeremiah to “stand in the gate of the Lord’s house, and proclaim there this word...”

Jeremiah was a member of a priestly family in Israel. God commanded him not to marry or have children because the coming judgment on the sinful nation would wipe out the next generation. Jeremiah prophesied during the reigns of the last five kings of Judah before the country was destroyed by Babylon. According to Biblica, Jeremiah is unique among the prophets because in his pronouncements and proclamations, he ‘reveals a great deal about himself.’ He ‘lays bare the deep struggles of his inmost being, and he often expresses an anguish of spirit.’ He is known to many as the “weeping prophet.”

Perhaps, these words attributed to D.L. Moody describe Jeremiah best: “I must not preach hell unless I preach it with tears.” That is the kind of preacher Jeremiah was.

Jeremiah was also a praying prophet. Samuel E. Balentine said, “Prophets in ancient Israel were specialists in prayer, and among the prophets, Jeremiah was a 85

prophet of prayer par excellence.” Jeremiah interceded for the people, bringing their requests and responses to God. Some of Jeremiah’s prayers have been called confessions because they closely resemble the prayers of David in the book of Psalms as Jeremiah is honest about his feelings before God. Balentine goes on to say that Jeremiah prayed “prayers of confession and lament...with the fervent hope that God’s intervention would be both immediate and specific.”

Jeremiah, like Moses and Samuel, took his responsibility to pray for the people very seriously. In Jeremiah 14, as the nation of Judah is suffering in a drought, the weeping prophet identifies with his people as he pleads for God’s mercy. He says, “O Lord, though our iniquities testify against us, do thou it [deliver us] for thy name’s sake: for our backslidings are many; we have sinned against thee.”

And in Jeremiah 42, as the king of Babylon threatens the nation of Judah, the leaders of Judah come to Jeremiah and say, “Let our supplication be accepted before thee, and pray for us unto the Lord thy God, even for all this remnant.”

We need more men and women of God who are dedicated to praying for their families, their communities, and their churches. If you can’t do anything else in the kingdom of God, you can pray for others. As the song, “Little is Much When God is in It,” says, Are you laid aside from service, Body worn from toil and care?

You can still be in the battle, In the sacred place of prayer.

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Yes, Jeremiah was a praying prophet. But, in verse 16 of our passage, we find that God tells him, “pray not thou for this people...for I will not hear thee.” Why? Why does God tell Jeremiah to stop praying? To find out, we must shift our focus from the prophet to the people.

The people.

In verse two God says, “Hear the word of the Lord, all ye of Judah, that enter in at these gates to worship the Lord.”

The first thing we notice about the people of Judah is that they are religious. God is speaking specifically to those who enter into the Temple to worship Him. God is talking to the “church people”, if you will. And what does God have to say to them? Look at verse 3: “Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, Amend your ways and your doings, and I will cause you to dwell in this place.”

God is calling the people — His people who are going to the Temple supposedly to worship Him — to repent. He says, “amend — or change — your ways.” They were sinning. They were doing things that God was not pleased with. Yet, they were still faithfully going to the ceremonies at the Temple.

When we look at the people of Judah, we see a reflection of some in the church today. Many of us faithfully attend church and take part in every religious function that we can, however, we live less than exemplary Christian lives at home. God expresses his displeasure with that type of lifestyle in the nation of Judah. Notice these words from Matthew Barnes regarding this passage: “Jeremiah 87

accuses the people of Judah of trusting in the ceremony of the temple instead of leading holy lives. Jeremiah says, ‘You break the Ten Commandments, and then you go to the Temple; and when the service is over you say, We are delivered. We have atoned for our past actions, and may start afresh with easy minds upon a new course of wickedness.’”

God says “enough” of this kind of behavior from His people. He tells them that if they repent, He will bless them, but if they do not repent, destruction is certain. As we know, unfortunately, the people of Judah did not repent. They continued in their hypocrisy. They continued putting on an outward show of religion, but never truly getting their hearts right with God. The prophet was praying, but the people were playing.

Now, let’s turn our attention to the third aspect of this passage.

The punishment.

Because the people of Judah would not repent, God tells them in verse 16, “I will cast you out of my sight, as I have cast out all your brethren, even the whole seed of Ephraim.”

God had warned them through his prophet, Jeremiah, but the people of Judah would not listen. They were stubborn.

They wanted to continue going up to the Temple pretending to be righteous, but not obeying God’s laws. God tells them to look to the land which had been occupied by the other ten tribes. That land had been destroyed because 88

they would not heed the warnings of God’s prophets, and time is running out for Judah as well.

This is a lesson that we must apply to our lives today: possessing the appearance of righteousness is not a substitute for true obedience. The people whom Jesus preached against the most were the religious people who appeared to be righteous on the outside, but who inwardly did not have their hearts right with God. It is these kinds of people who find it difficult to change their ways because they refuse to admit that they are wrong. Jesus had no problem with the sinners who acknowledged that they were not living right. It was the religious people — the people who appeared to be holy — whom Jesus had the most problems with.

It is these kinds of people whom Jeremiah is preaching to as well. The people of Judah believe that their religious actions will cause God to gloss over their sinful hearts.

But, not so. When God sees that they will not repent, He tells Jeremiah to not even bother to pray for them. He says, “neither lift up cry nor prayer for them, neither make intercession to me: for I will not hear thee.” Why? Because they have hardened their hearts against the preaching of the word and they refuse to change.

Listen to these words from Matthew Henry: “Those that will not regard good ministers’ preaching cannot expect any benefit by their praying. If you will not hear us when we speak from God to you, God will not hear us when we speak to him for you. God gives Jeremiah a reason for this prohibition. Praying breath is too precious a thing to be lost and thrown away upon a people hardened in sin

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and marked for ruin.”

Jeremiah wants to pray for his people more now than ever before. He wants to plead with God to have mercy on them, just as Moses did when the Israelites had made a golden calf and God was about to wipe them out for their idolatry. But God says, “No more! Don’t waste your breath praying for these people.” God is not being mean or hateful by telling Jeremiah not to pray for the people of Judah anymore. God gave them chance after chance. Jeremiah gave them opportunity after opportunity. But, the people wouldn’t change, and God says that their punishment will not be averted anymore. ‘It is no longer necessary to try and pray for them.’

How can we apply this passage to our lives today?

1. We ought to be like the praying prophet. We ought to have a burden for lost souls and for those who are saved, but who are still mired in sin.

2. We ought not to be like the people of Judah. If we are in sin, we ought to take heed to God’s word and amend our ways while God is giving us space to repent.

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11 When God Says ‘Don’t Pray’ (Part 2) TEXT: Jeremiah 11:9-14 9 And the Lord said unto me, A conspiracy is found among the men of Judah, and among the inhabitants of Jerusalem.

10 They are turned back to the iniquities of their forefathers, which refused to hear my words; and they went after other gods to serve them: the house of Israel and the house of Judah have broken my covenant which I made with their fathers.

11 Therefore thus saith the Lord, Behold, I will bring evil upon them, which they shall not be able to escape; and though they shall cry unto me, I will not hearken unto them.

12 Then shall the cities of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem go, and cry unto the gods unto whom they offer incense: but they shall not save them at all in the time of their trouble.

13 For according to the number of thy cities were thy gods, O Judah; and according to the number of the streets of Jerusalem have ye set up altars to that shameful thing, even altars to burn incense unto Baal.

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14 Therefore pray not thou for this people, neither lift up a cry or prayer for them: for I will not hear them in the time that they cry unto me for their trouble.

In the last chapter, we were introduced to Jeremiah as a weeping, praying prophet who was faithful in his duties as a spokesperson for God and intercessor for the people. We also saw the sinfulness of the children of Israel, and the chastisement that God had promised to send upon them. Here, in Jeremiah 11, we see God telling his servant once again not to pray for the children of Israel because of their sins. I want you to notice three things from this passage.

Notice the deliberate decision.

In verse 9, the Lord tells Jeremiah, “A conspiracy is found among the men of Judah, and among the inhabitants of Jerusalem. They are turned back to the iniquities of their forefathers, which refused to hear my words; and they went after other gods to serve them: the house of Israel and the house of Judah have broken my covenant which I made with their fathers.”

The word “conspiracy” denotes treason or a united act of rebellion against the commandments of God. Adam Clarke says that the men of Judah were “sworn brothers determined to cast off the Divine yoke and no longer to have God reign over them.” The children of Israel had made a deliberate decision to disobey God. They said, ‘we are going to do things our way.’

Jeremiah prophesied during the reign of King Josiah.

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Josiah was one of the few good kings of Judah during the era of the divided kingdom. Josiah ordered the Temple to be repaired because it had been neglected for so long, and while the repairs were being made, the priests found an old copy of the book of Deuteronomy. This discovery sparked a period of reformation in Judah. The public worship of idols was abolished, and many of the high places were destroyed. However, Josiah’s son did not carry on these reforms, and the people turned back to idolatry. That is why God says, “they are turned back to the iniquities of their forefathers.”

We see a tragic picture of ourselves and our society in this passage. How many times have we done wrong, been confronted about it, suffered the consequences that came from it, and then went back and committed the same sin again? A man in New Jersey was released from prison after serving a 15 year sentence for robbing a shoe store.

The day after he was released from prison, this man went back to the same shoe store and robbed them again. The police caught him just a few blocks away from the store and put him back in jail. God wants us to learn from our failures, to get back on the straight and narrow, and to not deliberately continue in disobedience.

Even though they had a chance to continue on the path of reformation as a nation, the people of Israel deliberately decided that they would rebel and return to their idolatry.

Notice the divine destruction.

In verse 11, God says, “Therefore thus saith the LORD, Behold, I will bring evil upon them, which they shall not be 93

able to escape; and though they shall cry unto me, I will not hearken unto them.”

Since the people have decided to rebel against God’s laws, God has decided to chastise them by bringing destruction on them and their land. As one commentator said, “It required a captivity to cure them of this propensity [for rebellion]: and God sent one: after that, there was no idolatry among the Jews.” God sent chastisement that was so severe that He knew the children of Israel would realize the error of their ways and begin to turn back to Him. However, He decided ahead of time that He would not take heed to their cries for mercy; He would let the full course of their chastisement run out.

God even had to tell Jeremiah not to pray for the people of Israel. In verse 14 He says, “Therefore pray not thou for this people, neither lift up a cry or prayer for them: for I will not hear them in the time that they cry unto me for their trouble.” Not only is it sad when God says He will not hear your prayers, but it is even more sad when God says He will not hear the prayers of others for you.

Have you ever had to punish a child or reprimand an employee or someone you were in authority over, and you had to ignore their protests and cries for mercy? Perhaps you said to yourself, “I’m doing it for their own good.” That is what God is doing for the children of Israel.

George Foreman, the heavyweight boxing champion, grew up in a single-parent home, and as he grew older, he became too much for his mother to handle. He said, “Eventually, my rebellious and stubborn nature, coupled

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with my intimidating size, simply wore her down. In the end, all she could do was turn me over to the Lord. I can remember that day so vividly. Mama, frustrated and tired, looked up at her teenage giant and said, ‘Son, I just can’t do it anymore. You’re too much to handle. I’m turning you over to the Lord.’” George Foreman goes on to say, “Now, that may not sound very threatening to some, but make no mistake about it, turning me over to the Lord was not a passive move on her part... My mother committed herself to prayer, leaving me to the Lord for Him to do whatever He needed in order to get my attention. And I’m here to tell you that the Lord answered her prayers...After Mama had turned me over to the Lord, it didn’t take very long for the Lord to start working.”

Just as there came a time in George Foreman’s life when God took over and began to do as He saw fit in George’s life, we see in our passage that there came a point in the history of the children of Israel when God had to begin to do as He saw fit with His people. When God told Jeremiah not to pray anymore for the children of Israel, He was basically saying, ‘Jeremiah, you’ve done your part. You’ve prayed for these people and preached to this people. Now, I’m going to deal with them.’ Matthew Henry notes that God’s command to Jeremiah was not for him ‘to stop praying for their eternal salvation, but for their deliverance from the temporal judgments that were coming upon them.’ God allowed the children of Israel to be sent into captivity, not because He wanted to — not because He is cruel and mean — but because He wanted them to learn their lesson that idolatry would not be tolerated.

God sometimes has to deal with us harshly in order to get

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us to understand that our sins will not be tolerated as well.

Too many Christians (especially young Christians) make the mistake of thinking that God is too loving to chastise them strongly. But I, and anyone who has been walking with Christ for a while, will tell you that God’s chastisement is nothing to play with. It is best to learn our lesson the first time around than to have to suffer under God’s hand of judgment.

This passage lets us know that the divine destruction that God brought on the children of Israel was for their own good.

Notice the cry of the captives.

Look at verses 11 and 12: God says, “Though they shall cry unto me, I will not hearken unto them. Then shall the cities of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem go, and cry unto the gods unto whom they offer incense: but they shall not save them at all in the time of their trouble.”

Like most of us, it takes some hardship, some pain, some difficulty, for the children of Israel to realize the error of their ways. Once they are shackled and being marched across the desert to a foreign land, they come to their senses, and begin to cry out to God. Once they are in Babylon, they look back longingly toward Jerusalem and realize how good they had it. They cry out to God for deliverance and mercy. But God has said He will not hear them. Here we see a demonstration of Proverbs 28:9 which says, “He that turneth away his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer shall be abomination.”

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Not only will God not hearken to the cries of the children of Israel, but the idols which they trusted in will not be able to answer them either. When God has decided to send chastisement, nothing can deliver us from it. As Hebrews 10:31 states, “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hand of the living God.” What are you trusting in today? What is your idol? Are you trusting in people, money, or privilege more than you trust in God? You might think that your job, your connections, or your money makes you immune from God’s judgment.

But, as Matthew Henry said, “Those that make idols of the world and the flesh will in vain have recourse to them in a day of distress.” Nothing can deliver you out of the hand of God. I can tell you from my own experience that when God gets started on you, it will be painful, and it will last a long time.

For the children of Israel, their captivity lasted 70 years.

The lesson for us today is that we ought not to be like the children of Israel. We ought not to turn our backs on God’s Word and choose to trust in idols — people and things that we can see and touch and handle. We ought not to put ourselves in a situation where God will not hear our prayers or where God will not hear the prayers of others for us.

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12 Supplication — the Proper Response to God’s Chastisement TEXT: Jeremiah 36:1-7 1 And it came to pass in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah, that this word came unto Jeremiah from the Lord, saying 2 Take thee a roll of a book, and write therein all the words that I have spoken unto thee against Israel, and against Judah, and against all the nations, from the day I spake unto thee, from the days of Josiah, even unto this day.

3 It may be that the house of Judah will hear all the evil which I purpose to do unto them; that they may return every man from his evil way; that I may forgive their iniquity and their sin.

4 Then Jeremiah called Baruch the son of Neriah: and Baruch wrote from the mouth of Jeremiah all the words of the Lord, which he had spoken unto him, upon a roll of a book.

5 And Jeremiah commanded Baruch, saying, I am shut up; I cannot go into the house of the Lord:

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6 Therefore go thou, and read in the roll, which thou hast written from my mouth, the words of the Lord in the ears of the people in the Lord’s house upon the fasting day: and also thou shalt read them in the ears of all Judah that come out of their cities.

7 It may be they will present their supplication before the Lord, and will return every one from his evil way: for great is the anger and the fury that the Lord hath pronounced against this people.

Jeremiah is God’s man prophesying to the rebellious nation of Judah which, thus far, has refused to listen to God’s call for repentance. Now, the Lord tells Jeremiah to write down all of the messages that he has delivered over the previous 23 years. Jeremiah has his scribe, Baruch, record these messages on parchment. Baruch was a member of an important family in Judah, and archaeologists say that in excavations around Jerusalem, they have found signet rings bearing Baruch’s name. The signet ring would have been dipped in hot wax or in ink and then stamped on the parchment in order to identify the writing as genuine.

As we see from this passage, the nation of Judah is still in rebellion against God, and God has warned them that judgment is coming in the form of being conquered and taken into captivity by Babylon. In fact, approximately a year before the events of chapter 36, the Babylonians had subdued Judah, and the first wave of captives — which consisted of the royalty and the members of the noble families including Daniel — had been marched off into the desert.

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One would think that that alone would be enough to grab the attention of the children of Israel — to get them to see the error of their ways and get them to repent. And that is what God calls them to do. In light of our focus on prayer, let’s look at this passage and see the proper response to God’s chastisement.

1. Notice the two sides of God. When God tells Jeremiah to begin writing down his prophecies, He says, “It may be that the house of Judah will hear all the evil which I purpose to do unto them; that they may return every man from his evil way; that I may forgive their iniquity and their sin.” We see here God’s desire for the children of Israel to repent of their sins and turn back to Him. God wants to forgive them of their iniquity and their sin.

Now, this is the very same God who told Jeremiah three times to no longer pray for his people because they were too far gone in their sinful ways. This is the very same God who said He would allow the Babylonians to conquer them, put them in chains, and force them into captivity.

This is the very same God who gave Jeremiah fiery pronouncements of impending doom for the past 23 years. Yet, we see in this verse that even though the people have not taken heed to all of that, God’s desire is still to forgive and bless them if they would just forsake their sins and turn back to Him. To understand this fully, we must come to grips with the two sides of God. Some people think that God is all loving and all merciful all of the time. Others think that God is 101

hard and eager to judge us all of the time. However, in this passage, we see the reality — God is both. In verse 2, God expresses his desire to show love and mercy to His people if they would repent. However, in verse 7, we read that “great is the anger and the fury that the Lord hath pronounced against this people.”

God’s love and God’s wrath go together. In the midst of our sin and our disobedience, God is both loving in His desire to show us mercy and He is righteous in His requirement that sin be punished. D.A. Carson wrote these words: “There is nothing intrinsically impossible about wrath and love being directed toward the same individual or people at once. God in His perfections must be wrathful against His rebel image-bearers, for they have offended Him; God in His perfections must be loving toward His rebel image-bearers, for He is that kind of God... Do you wish to see God’s love? Look at the Cross. Do you wish to see God’s wrath? Look at the Cross.”

God expresses the same love and wrath toward us today.

As with the children of Israel, God wishes to show us mercy even when we sin, however, if we do not repent and turn to Him, God will have to judge us. Thus, it would behoove us to repent and turn to Him while we have a chance. And that is what we are going to look at next.

Notice the first response which is hearing God’s word.

After Baruch has written down the prophecies that God had given to Jeremiah, Jeremiah tells him, “go thou, and read in the roll, which thou hast written from my mouth, the 102

words of the Lord in the ears of the people in the Lord’s house upon the fasting day: and also thou shalt read them in the ears of all Judah that come out of their cities.”

(Jeremiah was unable to go and read his own writings in the Temple because the king had banned him from speaking there, effectively placing him under house arrest.

Joseph Exell said Jeremiah’s “imprisonment suggests the sad moral character of his age. The prisons of an age are often criteria by which to determine its character. When prisons are filled with men of signal excellence of character, force of conscience, and self-denying philanthropy, you have sad moral proofs of the deep moral corruption of the age that could tolerate such enormity.”)

We see that hearing God’s word is the first step on the road of repentance. Some people do not want to hear God’s word because it convicts them. It goes against what they want to do. They do not like feeling convicted about their past sins or about their intention to sin, so they mentally block out God’s word and the honest teaching and preaching of it. They like going to hear a preacher who only preaches to make the people feel good. These folks are not really interested in repentance because they are not interested in doing what the word that they have heard says to do.

In the Bible, hearing God’s word is closely tied to doing God’s word, and at least having the heart and will to do God’s word. God’s word to the nation of Judah was to repent of their idolatry. If the people would only hear and obey, God would show them mercy and avert His judgment. But, that result hinged on their doing.

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A.W. Tozer wrote that “many of us Christians have become extremely skillful in arranging our lives so as to admit the truth of Christianity without being embarrassed by its implications.” In other words, we pay lip service to the truth of God’s word but ignore its call to life changing behavior.

If we are not determined to obey God’s word, we are not really hearing God’s word. As one writer put it, “How often do we hear about Sunday Christians who wake up on Monday as though they’ve never been in church?” How often do we listen to God’s word without really hearing it because we are not serious about actually doing what it says to do?

If the nation of Judah wanted to experience God’s mercy in their situation, they would have to hear God’s word and repent in their hearts and in their actions. That is what God wants us to do as well, for that is the only way we can demonstrate that we are serious about hearing and obeying God’s word.

Notice the second response which is supplication.

Not only do God and Jeremiah hope that the people will hear the word as it is read to them, but that they will respond with supplication. Verse 7 says, “It may be they will present their supplication before the Lord, and will return every one from his evil way.”

The word “supplication” means a prayer or a cry for mercy.

Adam Clarke says that in this passage, the phrase means, “Let their supplication fall — that the people may fall down before God, and deplore their sins.” The meaning of 104

supplication carries with it the sense of humbling one’s self before God in prayer. In supplication, we admit that God is right and submit ourselves to His word even as we ask for forgiveness and mercy. That is what God wanted the children of Israel to do — to humble themselves, seek his forgiveness, and make their intentions clear by making supplication to Him. They had already experienced a taste of God’s judgment. If they wanted to avoid further judgment, this is what they would have to do.

David is a good example of someone who sought God’s mercy and forgiveness through prayer. In Psalm 32, David said, “When I kept silence [that is, when I was quiet about my sin or when I tried to cover it up], my bones waxed old through my roaring all the day long. For day and night thy hand was heavy upon me: my moisture is turned into the drought of summer.” David is talking about God’s chastisement upon him. But, then he says, “I acknowledge my sin unto thee, and mine iniquity have I not hid. I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord; and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin.”

The moment David said in his heart, “I’m going to confess, I’m going to get it right,” God forgave him. God showed David mercy even before he could actually make the verbal confession because he saw the change of attitude in David’s heart. That is what God is looking for in all of us when we are faced with His chastisement — a change of heart, a humbling of spirit, and a prayer of supplication for forgiveness. Chuck Smith said, “God glories in forgiveness. God delights to forgive you all of your sins.

All He wants is just an excuse, and you provide Him that excuse by asking Him. God is really more desirous to

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forgive us of our sins than usually we are to be forgiven.”

The question for the nation of Judah was, were they willing to be humble, to hear God’s word, and to make supplication to God? And that is the question for us today.

Do we want to experience God’s mercy and forgiveness or experience His chastisement? Will we have the right response to the chastisement that we have already experienced? Will we hear God’s word that is calling us to repent of our sins and make supplication to Him?

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The Sinner’s Prayer If you are reading this book and you do not know the Lord Jesus Christ as your Saviour, your first prayer needs to be what we call the Sinner’s Prayer.

Please understand that you are a sinner and that you have broken God’s laws just as I have. The Bible says in Romans 3:23: “For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.” Please understand that because of our sins, we deserve eternal punishment in hell.

Romans 6:23 says “the wages of sin is death...” This includes both physical death and spiritual death in hell.

That is the bad news.

The good news is found in John 3:16 which says, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”

If you believe that Jesus Christ died on the cross for your sins, was buried, and rose from the dead, and you want to trust Him for your salvation today, please pray this simple prayer and mean it from your heart:

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Holy Father God, I realize that I am a sinner and that I have done some bad things in my life. For Jesus Christ sake, please forgive me of my sins. I now believe with all of my heart that Jesus Christ died for me, was buried, and rose again. Lord Jesus, please come into my heart and save my soul and change my life today. Amen.

If you just trusted Jesus Christ as your Saviour, and you prayed that prayer and meant it from your heart, based upon the Word of God, you are now saved from Hell and you are on your way to Heaven.

Welcome to the family of God! Congratulations on doing the most important thing in life and that is trusting Jesus Christ as your Lord and Saviour.

For more information to help you grow in your newfound faith in Christ, go to www.GospelLightSociety.com and read “What To Do After You Enter Through the Door.”

Jesus Christ said in John 10:9, “I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture.”

May God bless you as you begin your new life with Him.

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You can listen to Daniel Whyte III preaching any of the messages in this book online at www.PrayingThroughtheBible.com.

Tune in to The Prayer Motivator Devotional Broadcast/Podcast www.PrayerMotivatorDevotional.com and

The Prayer Motivator Minute www.PrayerMotivatorMinute.com These broadcasts/podcasts will inspire, encourage, and motivate you to pray every day so you can live your best life now.

Based on The Prayer Motivator book

by Daniel Whyte III. Both of these broadcasts are available on: iTunes Google Play (Android) Stitcher Radio BCNN Radio 7 Live365 Radio Gospel Light World Radio BlogTalkRadio.com Buzzsprout.com FeedBurner BlackBerry Podcasts and many other podcast outlets